Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-16
THE LILY IN TOW.
Her Experience with the Real
Estate boomers.

/
When Mrs. Langtry arrived at Los
Angeles she was received by the real
estate agents with open arms. The
retailers of the Lords footstool in that
town had heard of her transactions in
Naples-not in Italy, but in Santa
Barbara county-and they were wild
to have her put little money" in
this and that tract on the outskirts OF
the City of the Angels. a gentle
man who arrived from the town OF
booms yesterday said that no sooner
was it discovered by the land
sale men that Langtry was about
| to put in an appearance that some OF
them chartered Il special hand-car and
went up the road to meet her. They
had fife and drum along and flag
inscribed Welcome to Citizen Lang
try" which they waved amid cheers
as they stepped aboard the Lily's
train. All the way into town Mrs.
Langtry listened to the charming des-
criptons of the charming suburban
lands in which she was asked to invest,
and one agent, after drawing more
than commonly sweet-word sketch of
the tract he had on sale, stood back,
and, assuming one of Mr.. Coghlan's s
picturesque posturcs, said to the Lily
in STACEY tones;
''Dost thou like the picture ?"
To which she responded, not in the
language of the Lady of Lyons, but
in terms equally affecting: "How
much front foot?"
1t was limited that some of the more
liberal agents, wishing to advertise
their particular tracts, made offers of
blocks of land to the actress, some of
which were accepted. This is not
known for fact, although it is stated
on good authority that half dozen
blocks in as many new towns have her
name inscribed across them on the
blueprint plats in very legible char
acters.
The above, from the San Francisco
Chronicle, must have been sent by
their special telegraphic correspondent
here. There is slight vein of truth
running through the article, but it is
so disguised that it requires real
estate man to detect it. The Lily, be-
fore coming to Los Angeles, was thor
oughly loaded up with the idea that
here was the place to invest. She
dreamed of its beauties by night, and
during the day calculated the profits
she would make on her investments
in Southern California realty. She
did not wait for people to meet
her and try to sell her real estate.
Quite the contrary. Before she left
San Francisco she had Mr.. f. B.
Chadbourne, of that city to write a
letter to her agent here which said
that Mrs. Langtry was very anxious
to invest 100000 in Los Angeles real
estate and asking her agent to intro
duce her to that most accomplished
gentleman and well posted real estate
agent, Mr.. T. f. Rowan. The Lily
arrived, and while no delegation went
out to meet her, Mr.. Rowan was in
his office as usual and, possibly, had
she called she would have been
given several opportunities of
investing her little 100000, which is II
sum too small for serious consideration
in Southern California. The Lily's
agent, however, did his work well and
got morning paper to publish the
letter to him. The Lily's Investments
have not panned out. In the first
place she wanted real estate men to
come and see her. Now as matter
OF fact there is not Il dealer in realty
in this city who has the time to see
anybody outside OF his office unless it
a person who wants to make pur-
chase of some moment. 1t is
said that Mrs. Langtry got so ex-
cited ON the town-lot question
that she forgot her lines, and this in a
measure accounts for her rather ques-
tionable acting while here. She didn't
invest in fact, she did not pay for a
meal. She lived on her car and took
rides in cheap conveyances during the
day A wild report spread that she
had sent up town for some corset
stays, but the report proved false the
stays were for the wife of section
boss near the depot.